First selection of Goshiki at Yoshikigoi farm

In this blog I (Jos Aben) will present one of our selection rounds at the Yoshikigoi farm. The first fishes are now around 5 to 6 weeks old, so it’s time for the first selection round. In this first selection, we look especially to the body and the shine and skin quality of the young fishes.

The first selection of 2012 are Goshiki, which are now have a length between 4 and 6 cm. In this stage, they grow around 1 cm per week. Unfortunately this spring was not so good in Poland; the weather was bad and many temperature changes occured. As a result of these conditions, the fry growed less fast in comparison with previous year. The last weeks, the growth was very explosive, due to the high temperatures. In the last week, the temperature rose to plus 30 degrees Celsius and the water reached 24 – 26 degrees Celsius. This is optimal for growth and development of koi.

‘The body of a Goshiki is for example much more powerful at 4 weeks than a Sanke of the same age.’

One of the things we learned during the years is that the development differs between varities. The Goshiki have a development which is comparable with the development of Showa; mainly the body. The body of a Goshiki is for example much more powerful at 4 weeks than a Sanke of the same age. The Showa Koi have the same characteristics, this must taken into account when selecting these young fishes; we want strong and powerful body’s with a good shine of the skin.

Beautiful Goshiki bred by Conias.

Further, the pigment must lay deep at the skin and it should contain not too many colour varieties. The pattern must be large enough, to be attractive also at a later stage of the fish. These criteria results in a strong selection and not many of fishes will survive these.

Please watch the video, it illustrates the selection round in a nice way. At the next selection (in almost four weeks) we will make another video and explain the development after the selection.